EPA's New Clean Air Standards Could Place
Children at Greater Risk

In November 1996, the EPA proposed new, more stringent standards
for particulate matter (soot) and ozone (smog), arguing that stringent
air pollution standards could prevent some 250,000 cases of serious
respiratory problems in children, some of them life-threatening.
But instead of protecting children, the new standards could place
them at increased risk.

According to a study conducted by David M. Lang and Marcia
Palansky and summarized in the New England Journal of Medicine,
the link between air quality and serious respiratory illnesses
is virtually nonexistent. The study, which examined asthma death
rates between 1969 and 1991, found that asthma-related deaths
rose from 1.68 deaths per 100,000 in population in 1969 to 2.41
per 100,000 in 1991. This rise occurred at the very time concentrations
of major air pollutants were in decline in the city. The study
also found that death from asthma was more common in census tracts
in which greater proportions of residents were black, Hispanic
and female -- population groups more likely to be impoverished.
Since the new air regulations could cost an estimated 200,000
jobs, more Americans are likely to be impoverished and thus at
greater risk of serious respiratory illness.

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS), a research arm of the Department of Health and
Human Services, "the distribution of asthma in other countries
fails to implicate pollution as an aggravating factor. Some of
the highest asthma mortality rates occur in Australia and New
Zealand, which have excellent air quality."

3) New York study concludes pollution accounts for less
than 1% of all asthma hospital admissions.

Of the 14,700 asthma hospital emissions in New York City each
year, just 90 -- or .6% -- are attributable to air quality problems.
In other words, 99.4% of all such admissions would be unaffected
by the EPA's new air quality standards.

4) Independent study concludes that more people could die
than be saved by new, stricter standards.

Even by the EPA's optimistic projections, more stringent air
standards could save just 15,000 per year. But according to a
study conducted by the Reason Public Policy Institute, the new
standards could cost up to 27,000 American lives each year by
creating economic hardship -- a net loss of up to 12,000 lives.